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Meanwhile, in North Dakota, current FOX affiliates KNDX/26 (Bismarck) and KXND/24 (Minot) have announced that beginning Friday, the FOX lineup will move to KFYR/5.2 (Bismarck), KMOT/10.2 (Minot), KQCD/7.2 (Dickinson), and KUMV/8.2 (Williston). FOX will continue to be seen on KNDX-LD/38 (Dickinson) and KXND-LP/38 (Williston), which Gray bought from Prime Cities Broadcasting for $500,000.
Gray is in the process of buying KFYR-TV, KMOT, KQCD, and KUMV from Hoak Media in a deal that already has FCC approval. The stations carry NBC on their .1 channels. KFYR-TV's website says Me-TV, which currently airs on the .2 channels, will move to .3 on Friday.

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Federal ownership rules do not allow a top-four TV station to directly buy another top-four station in the same market. Shared services agreements that allow one station to run another have become commonplace in small markets over the past decade, but the FCC has been cracking down on the practice both through increased scrutiny of sales and an order that companies end deals that allow one station to sell more than 15 percent of advertising on another. The moves have prompted a legal challenge from the National Association of Broadcasters.
Gray is also in the process of buying Hoak NBC affiliate KVLY-TV/11.1 (Fargo), which already operates Parker Broadcasting CBS affiliate KXJB/4.1 (Valley City-Fargo). Gray has said it would operate KXJB after a sale to Excalibur is completed. The KVLY sale has received FCC approval but the KXJB sale has not; no announcements about Fargo-market programming had been made as of Wednesday night.

It's too bad there is no Bismarck, ND thread. I would be curious on how guide data for Tivo or HTPC was handled there. After the latest Minneapolis change with the "9's", I'm not thrilled to be doing it again here. :-)

I will say I am sad to KXJB go dark...up until the last days of Catamount ownership, they were VERY connected to the community they serve, and hosted many personalities that had personality...Jim Adelson, Steve poitras, Charley Johnson, Kathy Coyle, Tom Coyne, Mike Morken, Bruce Asbury, Joe Weisman, Jason Brandby and many others...Don't see talent like that in this market anymore..

Anyone hear a schedule for KXJB's decommissioning? The press release in June hinted it would be by end of summer.
IMO MeTV should be left on 11-2, with CBS on 11-3 (or maybe 11-4 in honor of the long time CBS channel)...or will they keep the 4-1 numbering on the psip riding on kvly's signal..

I'm guessing the shutdown of KXJB is imminent, KVLY has an affiliation agreement with CBS now. From northpine.com:

NORTH DAKOTA/MINNESOTA:
Gray TV announced Monday that it has reached a new affiliation deal with CBS which includes KVLY-TV/11 (Fargo), signalling that the network has approved Gray's plans to move CBS to a KVLY subchannel. Gray had said its plans to move the Fargo CBS affiliation to the subchannel from KXJB/4 (Valley City-Fargo) were subject to approval by the network; a date for the change has not been announced. Gray is moving CBS to KVLY because new FCC rules will not allow it to operate KXJB through a shared services agreement as previous KVLY owners have done. KVLY carries NBC on its primary channel. (8/25/2014)

With the sale of KXJB announced today to Major Market Broadcasting - I will be surprised to see if it is actually used by MMB. Their other stations are South Asian stations - in markets where there would be a viewership for them. I wonder if it is more likely that the channel is sold to help finance stations in other larger markets?

With the sale of KXJB announced today to Major Market Broadcasting - I will be surprised to see if it is actually used by MMB. Their other stations are South Asian stations - in markets where there would be a viewership for them. I wonder if it is more likely that the channel is sold to help finance stations in other larger markets?

Maybe MMB can operate it as a multiplex of Antenna TV, Retro TV, This TV, GetTV and WeatherNation and collect enough ad revenue to fund their other stations after paying the power bill, etc.

I'm guessing Gray's sale agreement specifies they have to hold on to it for awhile..The "real" reason to sell it to a religious or minority group is the hope they'll run as a non-comm and limit sales competition in the market..

I find very little about Major Market Broadcasting as a company, just a few references to Diya TV. A multiplex consisting of the channels mentioned with Diya TV might be able to sell in this market - hopefully nothing in the KXJB sales agreement to limit competition with MeTV...Maybe they can sublet a stream out to KCPM who as been unable to keep a signal on the air in Eastern North Dakota and bring MyTV OTA.

It's quite a lesson reading social media comments in awareness of OTA television. Although hard for us to believe - there is a whole generation that only has experience with pay-TV models.

In the latest Facebook update from WDAY regarding the CableOne negotiations - there were 2 posts from people that did not know what 'over the air' meant. One I replied to assumed OTA meant radio broadcast.

PSIP on KXJB has been flaky lately....Sign of changes being applied and tested?

Not sure -- but for the first time in a long time, the indoor antenna was flaking out on KXJB for me also during TBBT. Could be just normal indoor antenna fun - but I don't usually have any issues with indoor antenna reception where I have it.

Is anyone having issues with KXJB (channel 4.1) this evening? My TiVo and Media Center PC refuse to tune it. My TV's tuner will tune it just fine. Also, on the TiVo, it tunes the CBS content on a channel it recognizes as 38-5, but there's no guide data; so pretty useless as far as recording anything...

Is this fallout from the sale of KXJB?

What makes TiVo and Windows Media Center fail to work when it seems to work through my TV's tuner just fine?

Is anyone having issues with KXJB (channel 4.1) this evening? My TiVo and Media Center PC refuse to tune it. My TV's tuner will tune it just fine. Also, on the TiVo, it tunes the CBS content on a channel it recognizes as 38-5, but there's no guide data; so pretty useless as far as recording anything...

Is this fallout from the sale of KXJB?

What makes TiVo and Windows Media Center fail to work when it seems to work through my TV's tuner just fine?

For the last couple of days I've had 2 'KXJB' entries in the Tivo guide. Both of them are populated with the same guide info. Sometimes directly tuning it to one or the other will give me a blank screen - but most of the times it's been fine.

I have noticed more signal fluctuation in the past few days, however. Indoor antenna positions that have been just fine have had to be moved in order to bring in a stable signal. Only with KXJB - not with any of the other stations.

I suspect the TiVo's behavior is a result of the PSIP oddities egftechman noticed earlier. PSIP and signal oddities can be handled differently by different tuners. Note the problems with some tuners even getting past a channel scan in those areas with the Ion Network mpeg4 pay-per-view sub-channels.

It may be completely unrelated to the impending move - it's impossible to say for sure without any confirmation from an engineer. I would be surprised if anything has really been undertaken yet - as there has been no notice regarding a date for the simulcast of CBS programming on 11-2 -- or the at-least month notice that would be needed prior to undertaking the simulcast while the signal is on-the-air.

I expect that it's going to be a nightmare getting guide data straightened out until after the 1st of the year. With a period of time that includes simulcast of CBS on 11-2 and 4-1 - then the shutdown of 4-1 - I'd get pretty familiar with the manual recording option for the next 2 months. :-)

I can't wait for Midco to finish build-out in Fargo. The latest lineup change on Cable One completely broke my HTPC. I use a Ceton Infinity4 (no real need for 6 tuners, so I haven't upgraded). My Ceton diagnostics indicates that all the correct channels are coming in, but I can't actually tune to them. The guide is completely broken -- I don't get many of the channels on the new lineup -- WDAY at 1006 is one of the few that is correct. The lower tier channels appear to be correct, but very few of the HD channels work. I spent an hour on the phone with tech support and they finally gave up and told me it must be my Ceton, which is crap, because it has worked flawlessly for more than two years and there are only problems with the 10/21 lineup change. I have a year left on my contract with Cable One. By that time, I hope that Midco is in my area in South Fargo.

I can't wait for Midco to finish build-out in Fargo. The latest lineup change on Cable One completely broke my HTPC. I use a Ceton Infinity4 (no real need for 6 tuners, so I haven't upgraded). My Ceton diagnostics indicates that all the correct channels are coming in, but I can't actually tune to them. The guide is completely broken -- I don't get many of the channels on the new lineup -- WDAY at 1006 is one of the few that is correct. The lower tier channels appear to be correct, but very few of the HD channels work. I spent an hour on the phone with tech support and they finally gave up and told me it must be my Ceton, which is crap, because it has worked flawlessly for more than two years and there are only problems with the 10/21 lineup change. I have a year left on my contract with Cable One. By that time, I hope that Midco is in my area in South Fargo.

Would a cablecard swap be worth a try? If items can't be tuned after a lineup change - it sounds more like a cablecard mapping issue than anything else.

I'll be moving back to Grand Forks in a few months after living down south for work for the last few years. This forum was super helpful to me years ago as I started getting HD signals OTA. Monster headache considering the towers were all over the place, but was very fun to do.

Anyway, I'll likely go with Midcontinent once I'm back. Has anyone used their branded Tivo? If so, what do you think? How many HD hours get recorded? Lastly, can you use esata or USB to connect an external hard drive in order to increase recording space?

I'll be moving back to Grand Forks in a few months after living down south for work for the last few years. This forum was super helpful to me years ago as I started getting HD signals OTA. Monster headache considering the towers were all over the place, but was very fun to do.

Anyway, I'll likely go with Midcontinent once I'm back. Has anyone used their branded Tivo? If so, what do you think? How many HD hours get recorded? Lastly, can you use esata or USB to connect an external hard drive in order to increase recording space?

Yes, I have the Tivo from MidContinent, and I love it. Yes, you can add the DVR Expander drive to the Tivo, and that will add 1TB of disk space. It connects via the eSATA port, and has to be a particular model drive to work with Tivo (It's a Tivo thing, not a MidCo thing). I also have 1 of the Tivo Mini, and it allows you to watch/record/etc TV on a 2nd TV, from the main Tivo unit, and is very very slick.